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Woolly Jacket and Sheath Dress

There I go again, looking off to the upper left corner, where no doubt someone is walking swiftly, coldly by, wondering what I’m doing down there.

I’m loving my outfit, THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING.

Nope, I’m not gonna lie, I love it. It’s all wool all the time, and it did an excellent job of keeping me warm in the 19 degree air. Well, you know, proportionally, considering it’s just a sheath dress and cropped jacket…

Oh but the jacket fabric. THE JACKET FABRIC. Found on Mood Fabric’s magical upper floor, immediately hugged to chest and guarded with my life. One other (very fashionable) lady snagged some as well, and like 80 people wanted to swatch it, WHICH MADE ME WANT TO SOB. (If you’re shopping online, might I suggest this beauty I’ve been ogling forever?) I went directly home with my treasure and spent the afternoon on the floor with it, laying it out every which way to come up with a placement for this Burdastyle Maxi Coat pattern (10/2013 #130). Never been so happy to be on the floor.

MY JACKET, SHE IS WATCHING YOU!!! WATCHING YOUR EVERY MOVE!!!

You’ll notice I didn’t go maxi with the jacket. I was just so happy with the print placement at that point, I thought more material would take away from the effect. Sometimes more is just more.

Can’t believe I just said that.

The pattern called for darts at the shoulder, but I opted for tucks instead, as the wool is pretty thick. Doesn’t fray too much though, so I finally tried a technique I’ve been wanting to wrangle for awhile, the blanket stitch. It’s fun! I’d even call it therapeutic! Especially when done on a Saturday morning, with spiked coffee and jazz, when the bulk of the weekend is rolled out before you like a glorious bolt of fabric. Editor’s note: With a thick, non-fraying wool like this one, you can be creative with your darts and finishing techniques. Another idea for the shoulder darts would be to cut them open and then join the edges together with a decorative stitch. And instead of one dart, maybe two small darts? Anything goes these days in fashion.

Yes, Virginia, there is also a dress– a princess seamed sheath dress from one of my favorite blue envelopes, Simplicity 2337. I went with a TNT for this medium-weight, safety cone orange wool (which has a slightly scratchy hand on the face, but is totes comfortable against the skin). Between the pattern placement for the jacket, real life, and crazy online sewing competition madness, I needed a quick TNT! And this is a solid my closet desperately needs….

How do you feel about wool? I’m sort of head over heels in love with it!

I have to admit that I don’t really like wool–mostly because it doesn’t like me and attacks my skin with itchiness and little red bumps as soon as I touch it! (Ironically, my last name has “wool” in it now that I got married…go fig.) I didn’t even go to the third floor when I was there over the weekend, for fear of breaking out in hives…sigh. But I love the look of it, and am insanely jealous of all of the sewists and knitters that get to play with it and make pretty warm things. Your jacket is no exception–yay for winter color!

ooo, love the outfit (though orange would not have been my first choice for the dress, but I have ‘fear of bright colors’. As for wool, I LOVE wool – and think that except for the height of the summer in July and August (unless you work in A/C and need a wool sweater for sure), you can find a weight of wool to wear. Now, part of this is that we used to raise sheep and I was into dyeing, spinning and knitting, but wool fabrics are fab.

19 degrees is why your cheeks match your dress! I love this on you ~ classic silhouettes with an Oona twist! Though I need to ask, are you getting food and water because you must be chained to your sewing machine with all the wonderful sewing that you’ve been doing!

I am so interested in wool, and have a beautiful piece of mid-weight plum purple wool blend… But and scared to choose a project and cut it! Do you ever have a piece of fabric so lovely that you can’t decide what to do with it? Or worry you’ll ruin your lovely fabric in the process?

oh, i always have a bit of fear cutting into something gorgeous…but then i decide its just fabric and with the first snip i get over it! but, i also am pretty good at saving a fabric until the right thing comes along. some stuff has waited YEARS.

You look like my Southwestern Sunrise wet dream!!! That aztec fabric is AAAAAMMMAAAZING!! And I love your use of the blanket stitch – it reminds me of a very ‘art teachery’ coat my mom had in the 90′s (which I LOVED. it was awesome. take my word for it). And I’m pretty sure ‘safety cone orange’ is going to be THE color to get your hands on. You definitely made me realize that I need more fluro orange sheath dresses.

That blanket print…. le sigh. So great. I’ve beenw anting to make a slouchy cardy coat in just such a beaut for a while but have yetto stumble over a bolt. Tempted to buy an old Pendeleton blanket and get to cutting.

AND THAT DRESS? Reminding me so very much of this fierce orange knit dress (same lines and everything) I wore to a TV host audition a few years ago. It was probably the most polished, coolest dress ever but I had to return it to a friend and i’ve been looking for a similar colour/body fabric forever to recreate it. Is there a link to this wool online?

yes girl! it’s right up in the post, i think WP gets mad if i paste it in the comments–right under the second photo of my bootay. i was worried it would be too itchy but really just the face has a scratchy hand, and the weight is great. just don’t expect yo man to caress you in the dress. but who wants caresses in a power dress?